


start a revolution

by Liu



Series: money, fame and fortune [1]
Category: Glee
Genre: First Meeting, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-07
Updated: 2014-03-07
Packaged: 2018-01-14 22:05:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1280434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liu/pseuds/Liu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Starchild comes in, and Kurt’s first thought is ‘oh, here’s another one trying to mask a mediocre voice with flashy styling.’ Something in Kurt stirs, discontended, and all he wants is for this day to be over. (Or, How Kurt Met Elliot.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	start a revolution

Starchild comes in, and Kurt’s first thought is ‘oh, here’s another one trying to mask a mediocre voice with flashy styling.’ Something in Kurt stirs, discontended, and all he wants is for this day to be over.

Starchild starts singing, and his voice is far from mediocre – in fact, if Kurt had a gun to his head and had to speak the truth, he’d have to say he’s impressed. That voice is raw and real in a way Kurt could never achieve, and that’s fine, that’s not who he is, but there’s just something about this guy, something that rubs Kurt the wrong way. 

Starchild prowls closer, a vision of an overgrown cat, all danger and glitter, and Kurt can practically hear Santana’s jaw drop. She’s filming this, obviously having the time of her life, and Kurt has to admit, as a performance, it’s not bad at all… but he can’t seem to enjoy it. His eyes are stuck to Starchild, holding that challenging gaze, because he refuses to back down, look away, show anything else but polite interest, even when everything inside of him seems to be boiling with things he can’t name.

Starchild swings on the chandelier, and Kurt’s jaw goes slack. In that second, he knows what’s wrong. The guy’s too theatrical, too flashy, trying too hard, singing too loud, no matter how well he pulls it all off - he’s a solo star, something Kurt has always feared in the back of his mind he’ll never really be.

He tells him thank you, but no thank you; both Santana and Rachel ride him hard about it for a while. And Kurt knows they’re right, Starchild’s a gorgeous, talented human being and an absolute asset to any band ever, but… this is Kurt’s band, this is something he does for himself, and he’s got enough on his hands with Rachel and Santana contributing their ideas. He doesn’t need another person to be better than him.

See, the thing is, Kurt’s used to playing second fiddle to everyone. He’s the good guy in the background, the guy who always does backup vocals or sings ten words in a collective song, the one who competes with Rachel so she would have a more-or-less equal opponent to win against. He’s the guy who’s everyone’s friend but no one’s best friend, except maybe Blaine and he doesn’t count because they’re engaged. Kurt has, somewhat cynically, started to wonder if their becoming best friends wasn’t partly caused by the size of Lima and the lack of other gay guys their age who weren’t closeted or really crazy. Then there’s NYADA, and how Kurt probably wouldn’t get in without Rachel’s help – it makes him feel angry, and helpless, and more than a little embarrassed because he should feel thankful to her, but instead, it feels like high school all over again, getting steamrolled by the powerhouse that is Rachel Berry and having these epic showdown fights with her on a regular basis. Kurt doesn’t think it really leads anywhere, it hasn’t for a long time, and it just making him a little tired, in need of doing something just for himself.

That something is his band. He loves Santana and Rachel, and Dani seems like a really nice, talented person, but Kurt just can’t, CAN’T have someone (else) in the band who’d push him into the background all over again. 

He tries to forget it, ignore what Rachel and Santana are saying – but the thing also is, he can’t get rid of Starchild’s voice swirling round and round in his head in a neverending recording, no matter how much Kurt tries to delete it from his brain.

Starchild seeks him out, then, and becomes Elliot, and then offers to become whatever Kurt wants him to be – that throws Kurt off-balance, makes something tingle in his stomach, like it’s his gut telling him that Elliot’s gonna fit right in with them; that, more than anything that the girls might’ve said, makes Kurt want to give Elliot a chance, if only to make himself stronger. If Elliot tries to take over, push them in a direction Kurt isn’t comfortable with… well, what doesn’t kill you, makes you that much more resistant to any bullshit life throws at you, Kurt thinks and smiles at Elliot – the guy has impossibly beautiful eyes when they widen as Kurt tells him he’s in. The only word for him at that moment is ‘adorable’, and Kurt really wonders how he can transform himself like this – and who the heck might be the real Elliot Gilbert.

When Santana tells him to stop flirting, he doesn’t pay any attention to it because he’s too busy telling her who he’s sitting with, excited and suddenly horrifyingly relieved that Elliot came to find them; honestly, the guy’s been in the band for about thirty seconds, and Kurt already can’t imagine what they would’ve done without him. It’s a little scary, really, but Elliot smiles and averts his eyes and then squints back at Kurt over those adorable cheeks of his, and Kurt’s lost.  
Santana’s remark about flirting doesn’t come back to him until late in the evening, after he’s just gotten off Skype with Blaine. It twists up in his stomach like a weight he can’t get rid of, no matter how much water he drinks in the kitchen; he goes to sleep feeling unsettled, like he is up for an important audition tomorrow, and he doesn’t even know his lines.

**Author's Note:**

> Title comes from Adam Lambert's 'Strut'.
> 
> I couldn't find any fics that wouldn't either AU Kurt's relationship with Blaine out for the sake of getting to Kurt/Elliot or dismiss it with a few sentences... so I hope to explore Kurt's situation here in more depth...


End file.
